There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills

There is gold in them thar hills andunfortunately

for us its still there. We’ve been down Kalgoorlies Super Pit the world’s largest open cut gold mine and on a gold prospecting tour but all we’ve got to show for it are a rusty nail and pieces of bullets.

Tonight is our third night in Kalgoorlie, an interesting place. We’ve walked the streetsincluding those of the neighbouring town ofBoulder inspecting heritage buildings, heard tales of the old timers and what they got up to and even toured the oldest still operating bordello.

The Super Pit is a massive hole in the ground about ½ a kilometer deep and 2 long covering

much ofthe golden mile. You can see openings to some of the old mines in its wall and they descend a further km below the current pit floor. It has been estimated that the old mines comprised about 9000km of tunnels. (That’s long enough to get from here to Tasmania and back!)

PS Those little Tonka trucks hold 240 Tonnes and take 2 shovelfuls to fill